How to choose among the literally hundreds of DVDs coming out each week? TIME's Richard Corliss is here to help, reviewing new and classic releases as they hit stores. Suggestions welcome. Let's get to it.

No End in Sight

In their plans for occupation no less than their
assertion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the Bush
Administration poobahs were misled by cockeyed optimism. Or is hubris
the word? The shock-and-awe attack plan knocked out electricity plants
that took months to restore. Disbanding the Iraqi army (free weapons,
anyone?) and barring any Ba'athist party member from a job in the new
government guaranteed looting, chaos and the anti-U.S. insurgency. Sages
from the military and the State Dept. peppered the White House with
helpful ideas and got slapped down for their troubles. When State
submitted a bulky analysis of the Iraq occupation, one rueful officer
notes, the President didn't even read the one-page summary.

Ferguson, a scholar and think-tanker, lays out the evidence in
interviews with a couple dozen soldiers and statesmen. He replaces
Michael Moore's rhetorical flourishes and comic timing with a timeline
of the misjudgments. Clearly, soberly, he shows how we got there; the
title suggests we'll be there for a while, whatever the locals want.
Rephrasing Colin Powell's Pottery Barn rule, an Iraqi man says, "When
someone creates this problem, they have to fix it or they have to leave.
They shouldn't leave it like this. Clean it up or get out." Good luck
trying to do either.

The architects of the Iraq catastrophe declined to speak to
Ferguson. Why should they spill their beans for free? They'll get
multimillion dollar book deals instead of Nuremberg trials. But if they
can't be forced to watch this impartial indictment, other Americans
should be urged to. Think of No End in sight as the year-end's
best gift  a most instructive, enlightening stocking-stuffer.